JPH08190312A - Toner elimination device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To reclaim only a recording medium on which toner is fixed to a white paper and to prevent the recording medium on which an image is formed by ink and the like from being inadvertently used by providing a device with a surface inspection means inspecting the surface of the heated recording medium and deciding whether the toner exists or not and sorting the recording medium decided so that the toner does not exist on it to a position where it is not carried to a peeling member. CONSTITUTION: Since the recording medium 2 is heated by a medium heating means 10 before it is carried to an unstabilization means 20, the surface of the heated medium 2 is inspected by the surface inspection means 8 and it is decided whether the toner exists or not. The medium 2 decided so that the toner does not exist on it is sorted to a second paper ejection tray 5 being at the position where it is not carried to the peeling member 24 by a medium sorting means 9. Therefore, even when the printing paper on which the image is formed by the ink and the like is mixed in the printing paper on which the image is formed by the toner, it is automatically sorted. Since the stickiness of the surface of the medium 2 is inspected by a stickiness measurement means 11, it is decided by the inspection means 8 based on the stickiness whether the toner exists or not.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a toner removing device for peeling and removing toner transferred onto a recording medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art At present, there is proposed a toner removing device for removing toner from a printing paper in order to reuse the printing paper on which an image is formed by toner. This toner removing device conveys the printing paper on the surface of which the toner adheres by a paper conveying mechanism and supplies a destabilizing agent to the conveyed printing paper to soften the toner adhered to the printing paper. And make it unstable. The printing paper in such a state is carried by the paper carrying mechanism and is inserted into the gap between the peeling roller and the pressure roller, and the surface of the printing paper on which the toner is fixed is brought into pressure contact with the peeling roller.

Since the surface of this peeling roller has a physical property of adsorbing the toner, it peels the toner from the printing paper and adsorbs it. At this time, since the peeling roller and the pressure roller have a heater and generate heat, toner transfer is promoted. The printing paper from which the toner has been peeled off is separated from the peeling roller and is discharged, so that the printing paper can be reused as a blank sheet.

[0004]

Since the toner removing device as described above can remove the toner from the printing paper, the printing paper can be recycled as a blank paper.

However, in an environment such as an office where a toner removing device is used, in addition to a printing paper on which an image is formed by a toner by an electrophotographic device, a printing paper on which an image is formed by handwriting with a pencil or an image is a relief printing plate. There is also a printing paper formed with ink by printing. The only image that can be erased with the toner removing device is the image formed with toner by electrophotography, so if the above-mentioned printing paper is mixed,
The toner removing device mixes and ejects the print paper on which the image is erased and the print paper on which the image is not erased. In this case, when the discharged bundle of print sheets is used in a copying machine or a printer, the images are printed in duplicate on the print sheet in which the images have not been erased.

[0006]

According to the first aspect of the present invention,
The outer peripheral surface of the adsorbing member that circulates when the recording medium having toner adhered to the surface is conveyed by the paper conveying mechanism to make the adhered toner unstable by supplying the destabilizing agent to the recording medium by the destabilizing means. In a toner removing device that sequentially presses the recording medium onto the surface of the recording medium to adsorb the toner to the adsorption member and separates the toner from the recording medium, a medium heating unit that heats the recording medium before being conveyed to the destabilizing unit is provided. A surface inspection means for inspecting the surface of the heated recording medium to determine the presence or absence of toner, and a medium separation means for separating the recording medium determined to have no toner into a position where it is not conveyed to the peeling member. .

According to a second aspect of the invention, in the first aspect of the invention, the surface inspecting means has an adhesion measuring means for inspecting the adhesiveness of the surface of the recording medium.

[0008]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the medium heating means heats the recording medium before it is conveyed to the destabilizing means. Therefore, the surface of the heated recording medium is inspected by the surface inspecting means. Determine the presence or absence. Since the recording medium determined to have no toner is sorted by the medium sorting unit to a position where it is not conveyed to the peeling member, the printing paper on which the image is formed by the ink and the printing paper on which the image is formed by the toner are mixed. However, this is automatically sorted.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the surface inspecting means inspects the adhesiveness of the surface of the recording medium by the adhesive measuring means, and therefore the presence or absence of the toner is determined by this adhesiveness.

[0010]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. First, as shown in FIG. 1, the toner removing device 1 of the present embodiment includes one sheet feeding cassette 3 in which a printing sheet 2 which is a recording medium is stored, and first and second sheet feeding cassettes 3 in which the printing sheet 2 is discharged. A paper transport mechanism 6 having two paper discharge trays 4 and 5 and sequentially transporting the print paper 2 from the paper feed cassette 3 to one of the first and second paper discharge trays 4 and 5. Has been.

More specifically, a separating / feeding mechanism 7 for separating and feeding the printing paper 2 is disposed at a position facing the paper feeding cassette 3, and the separating / feeding mechanism 7 separates the second sheet from the second sheet feeding mechanism 7. A surface inspection unit 8 and a sheet sorting mechanism 9 that is a medium sorting unit are sequentially provided at positions communicating with the sheet discharge tray 5.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the surface inspection section 8 comprises a heat roller 10 as a medium heating means and a spring gauge 11 as a surface inspection means. The spring gauge 11 and the heat roller 10 are connected to each other. Is pressed.
The heat roller 10 includes a hollow roller body 12 made of metal.
A halogen lamp 13 is disposed as a heater inside the printer, and heats the printing paper 2 while conveying it. The spring gauge 11 is a member in which a detection member 14 is supported by a spring 15 and is connected to a detection sensor 16 which is an adhesion measuring means, and the presence or absence of the toner 17 is determined by inspecting the adhesiveness of the surface of the printing paper 2. .

The sheet separating mechanism 9 is composed of a rotatable branch roller 18 and a swingable branch claw 19, and the toner 1
The printing paper 2 determined to have 7 is guided to the regular paper conveyance path, and the printing paper 2 determined to have no toner 17 is sorted to the second paper discharge tray 5.

Then, in the regular paper transport path communicating from the paper sorting mechanism 9 to the first paper discharge tray 4, a liquid applying unit 20, a toner peeling mechanism 21, and a drying unit 22 which are destabilizing means. Are arranged in sequence.

In the liquid applying unit 20, a stripping solution 23 which is a destabilizing agent is accumulated.
Is applied to the printing paper 2 and supplied. The toner peeling mechanism 21 includes a peeling roller 24, which is a peeling member, and a pressure roller 2.
The rollers 24 and 25 are rotatably supported and press-contacted to each other. As will be described later in detail, the peeling roller 24 is covered with a resin that favorably adsorbs the toner 17, and has a halogen lamp 26 built therein as a heater. The pressure roller 25 also contains a halogen lamp 26 as a heater, and conveys the printing paper 2 while pressing it against the peeling roller 24. The drying unit 22 includes a heat roller 27 that is rotatably supported, and an endless pressure belt 28 that is rotatably stretched. The pressure belt 28 is pressed against the heat roller 27. . This heat roller 27
Has a halogen lamp 29 as a heater,
The printing paper 2 pressed by the pressure belt 28 is transported and dried.

In such a structure, the toner removing device 1 of this embodiment removes the toner 17 adhered to the printing paper 2 like the conventional toner removing device, and the toner 17 is removed.
The printing paper 2 from which the paper has been removed is discharged to the first paper discharge tray 4. However, the printing paper 2 on which an image is formed with pencil, ink or the like is discharged to the second paper discharge tray 5 without performing the work of removing the toner 17.

Therefore, the processing operation of the toner removing device 1 will be described in detail below. First, the printing paper 2 from which the toner 17 is removed is stored in the paper feeding cassette 3 by the user. The image is formed by handwriting with a pencil on the printing paper 2 whose image is formed by the toner 17 by electrophotography. The printing paper 2 and the printing paper 2 in which the image is formed by ink by letterpress printing may be mixed. Since the toner 17 is generally made of a resin such as polystyrene, it melts at a constant temperature when heated.

When the operation start is input while the printing paper 2 is stored in the paper feeding cassette 3, the printing paper 2 is separated by the separating and feeding mechanism 7 one by one on the surface inspection unit 8
Separately fed. Since the heat roller 10 heats the printing paper 2 in the surface inspection unit 8, if the toner 17 is fixed to the printing paper 2, the toner 1
7 melts, and the adhesiveness of the surface of the printing paper 2 increases. Since the adhesiveness of the surface of the printing paper 2 is measured by the spring gauge 11, the presence or absence of the toner 17 is determined by the measurement result.

More specifically, the surface inspection unit 8 is connected to the printing paper 2
Assuming that the horizontal axis represents the passage time of the toner and the vertical axis represents the sensor output of the spring gauge 11, the adhesiveness of the surface of the printing paper 2 increases with the density of the toner 17, as shown in FIG. Therefore,
The surface inspection unit 8 compares the sensor output of the spring gauge 11 with a threshold value set appropriately in advance, and if the sensor output is larger than this threshold value, it is determined that the toner 17 has adhered to the printing paper 2. If the sensor output is smaller than the threshold value, it is determined that the toner 17 has not adhered to the printing paper 2.

Therefore, when it is determined that the toner 17 is adhered to the printing paper 2, the branch claw 1 of the paper sorting mechanism 9 is used.
9 comes into close contact with the branch roller 18, and the printing paper 2 is fed to the liquid applying unit 20. Since the peeling solution 23 is uniformly supplied to the printing paper 2 by the liquid applying unit 20, the toner 17 is in an unstable state in which the peeling solution 23 easily penetrates into the interface with the printing paper 2 and peels off.

Since the printing paper 2 is conveyed to the toner peeling mechanism 21 in this state, this toner peeling mechanism 21 is used.
Thus, the toner 17 is removed. In this case, the pressure roller 25 sequentially presses the printing paper 2 against the peeling roller 24, and in this state, the halogen lamp 26 is heated to soften the toner 17. Then, since the toner 17 is in an unstable state due to the peeling solution 23 that has permeated the printing paper 2, the toner 17 is adsorbed by the peeling roller 24 and peeled from the printing paper 2.

The printing paper 2 from which the toner 17 has been removed in this way is conveyed to the drying unit 22, and the halogen lamp 2
It is dried by being pressed against the heat roller 27 which generates heat by the pressure belt 29. The dried print paper 2 is discharged to the first paper discharge tray 4, so that the toner 17 is removed and the recycled print paper 2 is accumulated on the first paper discharge tray 4.

On the other hand, when the surface inspection unit 8 determines that the toner 17 is not adhered to the printing paper 2, the branch claw 19 of the paper sorting mechanism 9 separates from the branch roller 18 and coincides with the paper transport path. . For this reason, the printing paper 2 is guided to the second paper ejection tray 5 by the separation claw 19, so that the printing paper 2 on which an image is formed with ink or the like is accumulated on the second paper ejection tray 5. At this time, the printing paper 2 is not conveyed to the toner peeling mechanism 21 or the drying unit 22, so that the driving of these is stopped.

That is, the toner removing device 1 of this embodiment is
Even if the printing paper 2 on which the image is formed by the toner 17 and the printing paper 2 on which the image is formed by ink and the like are mixed, the printing paper 2 to which the toner 17 is adhered is regenerated as a blank paper and the first paper is ejected. The printing paper 2 discharged to the paper tray 4 and having an image formed with ink or the like is discharged to the second paper discharge tray 5 without being processed. For this reason, only the recycled printing paper 2 is deposited on the second paper discharge tray 5, so that this printing paper 2 can be used without anxiety, and the printing paper 2 on which an image is formed by ink or the like. Never use it by mistake. Further, when the printing paper 2 is discharged to the second paper discharge tray 5 because the toner 17 is not fixed, the toner peeling mechanism 21 and the drying unit 22 are used.
Since these are not driven unnecessarily, power consumption is reduced and mechanical wear is reduced.

In the toner removing device 1 of this embodiment,
Since the surface inspection unit 8 measures the adhesive force of the printing paper 2 with the spring gauge 11, the presence / absence of the toner 17 can be excellently determined with a simple structure. However, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and the presence or absence of the toner 17 can be determined by measuring the frictional resistance of the surface of the printing paper 2, for example.

Since the toner removing device 1 of this embodiment determines the presence or absence of the toner 17 by the adhesive force, for example,
When the image is formed on both the toner 17 and the ink on the printing paper 2, it is determined that the image is formed on the printing paper 2 by the toner 17, and only the toner 17 is removed and the ink image remains. First output tray 4 in the state
Is discharged to.

If this causes a problem, the line sensor 3 is placed at a position where the drying unit 22 communicates with the first paper discharge tray 4 as in the toner removing device 30 shown in FIG.
1 and a paper sorting mechanism 32 are provided, and the printing paper 2 whose image is detected by the line sensor 31 is the third paper output tray 33.
It is preferable to discharge it.

The peeling roller 2 for adsorbing the toner 17
4 can be formed of, for example, a resin material such as a resin having the same or similar component as the toner 17, a component resin of an adhesive agent, or a metal material such as an aluminum-based material, a copper-based nickel-based material, or the like. It does not matter whether it is water-soluble or water-insoluble.

Examples of the resin having the same components as the toner 17 include polystyrene resin, acrylic resin, methacrylic resin, styrene-butyl acrylic copolymer, styrene-butadiene copolymer, polyester resin, epoxy resin, and the like. It is not limited.

Further, as the resin having the same component as that of the adhesive, protein adhesives such as glue, gelatin, albumin and casein, starch-based, cellulose-based and carbohydrate-based compounds such as complex polysaccharides (eg gum arabic, tragacanth etc.) Adhesives, vinyl acetate polymers and copolymers, acrylics, ethylene-based co-aggregates, polyamides, polyesters,
Disperse thermoplastic adhesives such as polyurethane, polychloroprene-based, nitrile rubber-based, recycled rubber-based, SBR-based, rubber-based adhesives such as natural rubber-based, pressure-sensitive adhesives such as rubber-based and acrylic-based, and titanium oxide Other examples include polyethylene terephthalate (PET), but are not limited thereto.

When the peeling roller 24 is made of resin, the peeling roller 24 has a multi-layered structure including at least two layers of a support and a surface layer from the viewpoint of tension, prevention of elongation due to heat, durability and the like. In the case where the peeling member is the roller-shaped peeling roller 24 as in the present embodiment, a high-rigidity base roller is formed as a support,
It is desirable to cover the surface with a surface layer made of the above resin. As a support for supporting such a resin,
For example, rubber rollers, sheets, cellophane tapes, kraft paper adhesive tapes, polyvinyl chloride tapes, acetone tapes, tapes such as filament reinforcing tapes can be used, but are not limited to these.

Further, the stripping solution 23 is at least one kind of water selected from the group consisting of water, an aqueous solution containing a water-soluble polymer, an aqueous solution containing a surfactant, and an aqueous solution containing a water-soluble polymer and a surfactant. Alternatively, an aqueous solution can be used. Further, these water or aqueous solution may contain a predetermined organic solvent. Furthermore, only the organic solvent may be used as the stripping solution 23.

As the water-soluble polymer, for example, starchy substances (branch starch, potato starch, tapioca starch, wheat starch, corn starch, etc.), mannan (konjac, etc.), seaweed (fusuri, agar, sodium alginate, etc.), plant viscosity Natural polymers such as natural substances (troloa mallow, tragacanth gum, gum arabic, etc.), microbial mucilages (dextran, levan, etc.), proteins (nikawa, gelatin, casein, collagen, etc.), and cellulosics (viscose, methylcellulose, ethylcellulose, hydroxyethylcellulose) , Carboxymethyl cellulose, etc.), starch-based (soluble starch, carboxymethyl starch, dialdehyde starch, etc.) semi-synthetic polymers, synthetic polymers, etc., but are not limited thereto. No.

As the surfactant, for example, anionic (carboxylic acid salt, sulfonate, sulfuric acid ester salt, phosphoric acid ester salt, phosphonate, etc.), cationic (amine salt, quaternary) Ammonium salt, benzalkonium salt, benzethonium chloride salt, pyrivinium salt, imidazolinium salt, sulfonium salt, polyethylene polyamine, etc., amphoteric system (amino acid, carbobetaine, sulfobetaine, aminosulfate ester, aminocarboxylic acid salt, imidazoline) Derivatives, etc.), nonionic (ether type, ether ester type, ester type, nitrogen-containing type, polyhydric alcohol, amino alcohol, polyethylene glycol, etc.) usual surfactants, fluorine-based surfactants, etc. However, the present invention is not limited to these.

Further, as an organic solvent contained in water or an aqueous solution, for example, terbene, dipentene, butyl acetate, carbon tetrachloride, cellosolve acetate, xylene, toluene, ethyl acetate, diacetone alcohol, methyl cellosolve acetate, benzene, methyl. Etiketone, methyl acetate, methylene chloride,
Examples thereof may include, but are not limited to, ethylene dichloride, cyclohexane, cellosolve, dioxane, acetone, methyl cellosolve, cyclohexanol, butanol and the like.

On the other hand, as the organic solvent which can be used alone,
Hexane, heptane, octane, which are hydrocarbon solvents
Nonan, Spirit, Naphtha No. 1-6 (trade name of Shell Petroleum Co., Ltd.), Isopar E, L, K, V (trade name of Exxon Corporation), IP Solvent (trade name of Idemitsu Petroleum Co., Ltd.), Shell-sol 70, 71, Solvesso 100,1
50 (trade name of Shell Oil), Ascom OMS, 4
60 (trade name of Spirits), Vegasol 1029,
2129, 2940 (trade name of Mobil Oil Co., Ltd.) and the like. Furthermore, Fluorinert FC, which is a fluorine-based solvent
40,43,70,77 (trade name of Sumitomo 3M), Aflude E10,16,18, etc., and silicone solvent Shin-Etsu Silicone KF96 (trade name), Toray Silicone SH200,344 (trade name), Toshiba Silicone TSF
431 (trade name) and the like, but the invention is not limited thereto.

[0037]

According to the present invention, the medium heating means for heating the recording medium before being conveyed to the destabilizing means is provided, and the surface of the heated recording medium is inspected to determine the presence or absence of toner. By providing the surface inspecting means for separating the recording medium determined to have no toner to the position where the recording medium is not conveyed to the peeling member, the recording medium on which the image is formed by the toner and the image by the ink are formed. Even if the recording medium on which the image is formed is mixed, the recording medium on which the toner is adhered to the surface is reproduced as a blank sheet and discharged to the normal position, but the recording medium on which the image is formed by ink is unstable. Since the recording medium is not conveyed to the converting means, only the recording medium reproduced on a blank sheet can be effectively used, and the recording medium on which an image is formed by ink or the like is not used by mistake.

According to the second aspect of the invention, the surface inspecting means has the adhesion measuring means for inspecting the adhesiveness of the surface of the recording medium, so that the presence or absence of the toner can be satisfactorily determined with a simple structure.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a vertical sectional side view showing a toner removing device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view showing a surface inspection section.

FIG. 3 is a characteristic diagram showing the degree of adhesion of toner.

FIG. 4 is a vertical cross-sectional side view showing a modified toner removing device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1, 30 Toner Removing Device 2 Recording Medium 6 Paper Conveying Mechanism 9 Medium Separating Means 10 Medium Heating Means 11 Surface Inspecting Means 16 Adhesion Measuring Means 17 Toner 20 Destabilizing Means 23 Destabilizing Agents 24 Peeling Members

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A destabilizing means supplies a destabilizing agent to a recording medium in the process of conveying a recording medium having toner adhered to the surface thereof by a sheet conveying mechanism to make the adhered toner unstable and circulate. In a toner removing device that sequentially presses the outer peripheral surface of an adsorbing member against the surface of a recording medium to adsorb toner to the adsorbing member to separate it from the recording medium, the recording medium is heated before being conveyed to the destabilizing unit. A medium heating unit is provided, and a surface inspection unit for inspecting the surface of the heated recording medium to determine the presence or absence of toner is provided, and the recording medium determined to have no toner is sorted into a position where it is not conveyed to the peeling member. A toner removing device comprising a separating means. 2. The toner removing device according to claim 1, wherein the surface inspecting means has an adhesion measuring means for inspecting the adhesiveness of the surface of the recording medium.